Page 38 of The Breeding Cave

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

LUCIANO

After building a fire for Yeosin, the crook of my neck began blazing. I placed my hand over it and seethed. Suddenly, the pain spread from my neck to the rest of my body like a wildfire, overtaking every inch of me.

Mate, my beast howled inside my mind. Mate is in trouble.

My gaze traveled from the fire to the cave’s pathway, which led to the hot spring. I chucked a log of wood at Brent and ran through the pathway, following Yeosin’s scent to the hot spring, immediately spotting her seizing on the rock where I had left her.

And her body … her body was on fire!

Flames burned from her scars. I scooped her body into my arms and leaped right into the hot spring. The water sizzled around us as her body continued to seize in my arms. I cradled her head and dunked her underneath the water to put out the fire on her face.

“Yeosin,” I murmured, pulling her into my arms and holding her trembling body. My fingers curled into her sides as she continued to sleep, the flames out but her body still steaming. “Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.”

No response.

I leaped out of the hot spring because maybe the warmth of the water was making it worse, and I brought her to the other room. After stumbling right past the fire, I exited the cave and let the cold air hit her skin.

“What the fuck happened?” Brent asked, hurrying over.

“Her scars were on fire.”

“What?!”

“Get me a towel from the back room and some lotion.”

Brent disappeared deeper into the cave. Suddenly, the seizing stopped, and her burns didn’t feel quite as hot. Her eyes fluttered open, and she peered up at me through tears, seeing my face.

“Luciano,” she whimpered.

“I’m here,” I whispered. “It’s okay.”

Yeosin’s quiet tears turned into hiccups, and she began trembling in my arms again. She gripped on to me tightly, her nails digging into my shoulders. “I don’t want you to leave me,” she cried. “Please don’t leave me.”

“I’m not going to leave you.”

“Y-yes, you w-will!” she sobbed. “Because Ruby is better.”

“Ruby?” I asked. “How do you know who Ruby is?”

“Why didn’t you tell me about her?” she asked, wiping her eyes.

“She’s not important to me.” I rocked her. “What was your nightmare about?”

“The dragons had burned down the entire forest. I was tied up to a metal pole in the center of the chaos, and … and Ruby was there as a monster. And …” She paused and let out another sob. “And you were with her.”

“We were working together, but not for long …”

“No, you were there as a couple,” she whispered. “You kissed her. You loved her.”

“I don’t want to kiss her, and I really don’t love her,” I said.

Yeosin stayed quiet, but then slipped out of my arms and put distance between us, her tears gone and her arms crossed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have cried. I … you … I think you should be with her,” she whispered.

“What?” I exclaimed.

What the fuck was going on with her? Moments ago, she had told me not to leave her. Now she wanted me to be with Ruby? What the fuck had happened in her nightmare that caused her to think this?

“You should be with her,” she repeated. “She’s strong. I hold you back.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Look at my body,” she whispered. “These scars will continue to burn.”

“We will find a cure.”

“What happens when they burn so badly that I miscarry? Or can’t get pregnant at all?” She shook her head and stepped away from me, her gaze on the ground. “It’s not like you mated with me because you love me. You mated with me to have children.”

Not true.

“Do you love me?” she whispered.

Yes.

“Yeosin,” I said, staying in control, “it’s not that simple.”

Again, she stayed quiet.

“Was that all that happened in your nightmare?” I asked after I realized that was all she’d say unless I asked her.

“There was this voice …”

“A voice?”

“Someone who said—never mind.”

“What’d the voice say?”

“That they were coming to save me.”

I gritted my teeth. In her nightmare, I had been the villain. Not the savior. So, it had to be someone else’s voice. Someone else who had promised my mate that they’d save her. And I’d bet it was whoever the fuck that monster had been in the shadows this afternoon.

“Was it a female’s or male’s voice?” I asked.

Yeosin stayed silent.

“Yeosin, female or male?”

“Luciano …” she whispered. “I …”

“Who was it?”

“It was a female,” she said.

But I didn’t believe her.

I moved closer to her until we were inches apart. She was lying, but I wasn’t going to push it. I doubted that she even knew who it was.

“What was your first nightmare about?” I asked, drawing my fingers over her scars. “The nightmare that gave you these scars. What happened in that one? Did you see the dragons then? The Colossals?”

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. “I saw the dragons.”

“What did they do?”

“We were at this cave,” she said. “And they burned everything in sight, including you.”

Why had the nightmare changed from killing me … to me hurting Yeosin? Both included dragons burning the world to the ground, except this one included the Colossals. What had happened?

“They didn’t try killing you in either of the dreams?” I asked.

“No. They don’t want to kill me.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know,” she whispered. “They want to torture me, to make me weak. They want total submission. Submission that I will never give them.”